🔗 Share this article

Squad Updates & Starting XIs

Manchester United have made one change to the starting XI from the one that started the previous weekend’s 2-0 win against the Reds. Sandberg steps in for top scorer Melvine Malard, who is among the substitutes.

Chelsea rotate three players in and out of the starting eleven that began the 4-0 win at West Ham. Ellie Carpenter takes over from Veerle Buurman at the back, Macario comes in instead of Oriane Jean-François in the middle of the park, and Baltimore takes Alyssa Thompson’s spot up front. The players dropped are on the bench.

Confirmed Team Sheets

Man Utd: Tullis-Joyce, Riviere, Le Tissier, Janssen, Rolfo, Sandberg, Miyazawa, Park, Toone, Zigiotti Olme, Terland.
Subs: Middleton-Patel, Rendell, Blundell, George, Awujo, Ildhusoy, Naalsund, Malard, Williams.

Chelsea: Hampton, Bjorn, Bright, Carpenter, Kaptein, Cuthbert, Walsh, Baltimore, Kaneryd, Macario, Beever-Jones.
Substitutes: Peng, Reiten, Thompson, Buurman, Kerr, Hamano, Jean-Francois, Nusken, Potter.

Preamble

Just four games in, and already this feels like potentially a crucial match. Look! the table:

Pos	Team	P	GD	Pts
1	Chelsea Women	4	8	12
2	Man Utd Women	4	10	10
3	Man City Women	4	7	9
4	Tottenham Hotspur Women	4	0	9
5	Arsenal Women	4	7	8

Man Utd can go top if they win this evening. It’s a tough challenge, despite playing at home, especially since the visitors haven’t lost in the WSL since the tail end of the 2023-24 season – and they still went on to win the title. Moreover, Erin Cuthbert and Aggie Beever-Jones are displaying the sort of form that has them firing shots into the top corner.

However having said all that, United will still have confidence in their capacity to halt the long unbeaten WSL run of the top side in the land. Partly because their defence is solid – they have allowed just one goal in their first four gamedays – and they’ve got impressive strikes in them too: including Hinata Miyazawa, capable of launch a howitzer. With Malard joint top among the top scorers alongside the aforementioned Beever-Jones, there’s enough firepower on show for this to be an exciting match. If the Football Gods decide into serving up a goalless draw, I can only apologise ahead of time. The match starts in Leigh, Greater Manchester will be at 19:30 BST. It’s on!